This is also the so-called "pull one faction to fight another faction" or "use barbarians to control barbarians."
The reason why Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty sent an envoy to the Western Regions was because of the inconvenient transportation between the Central Plains and the Western Regions, and there were Huns blocking the way... The envoy itself would have to spend several months on the road, and he would often be captured and imprisoned by the Huns for several years. , so this strategy failed to work.
Shen Bing's advantage was that he knew the Xiongnu's strengths and weaknesses from the beginning, so he did not need to test, search, and try again and again like the Han army did before finally defeating the Xiongnu.
As soon as the Qin army sent troops, the Xiongnu Youxian King Xunxu noticed it immediately.
In fact, King Youxian made preparations very early.
Ever since the Hun envoy was attacked and killed in Qiuci, Xunxun knew that something bad was going to happen.
Xun Hao said to his generals:
"If Qiuci kills my envoy, he will rely on the Qin army."
"If Qiuci is attached, all the countries in the Western Regions will naturally follow suit, and the Qin army will stabilize its position in the Western Regions."
"Next, the Qin army will send troops to the grassland!"
Therefore, King Youxian immediately sent spies pretending to be herdsmen from the Western Regions to monitor the movements of the Qin army.
This was not difficult for the Xiongnu. The Western Regions and the Xiongnu were both nomadic peoples, and they even spoke the same language along the border. There was no household registration system in the Western Regions, so there was no need for disguise.
News reached King Youxian one after another, and King Youxian was secretly surprised.
Because King Youxian thought that if Shen Bing wanted to attack the grassland, it would take at least ten months or even one or two years to prepare.
After all, it takes time to win over the countries in the Western Region and stabilize the people's hearts, it takes time to recruit troops, and it also takes time to train the army and stock up on food and grass.
Who would have thought that Shen Bing would be finished in just two months.
One moment, the cavalrymen from all walks of life in the Western Regions were reported to have gathered together, and the next moment, the training was completed and it seemed that the troops were about to be sent out.
King Youxian still didn't believe it after hearing this, and was still resting in the Yanran Mountain area... Although King Youxian's troops had not suffered much losses since the First World War in the Western Regions, the morale of the entire army had suffered a serious blow.
Because as Xun Yu said before the war started:
"If a hundred thousand troops cannot defeat the Qin army of ten thousand, how can the Xiongnu be the opponent of the Qin army?"
Haikou continued to boast, but instead of winning the battle, it ended up being a disastrous defeat, and its side effects followed:
Although the Xiongnu soldiers did not say it explicitly, they secretly spread the saying of Xun Hao: "If a Qin army of one hundred thousand can't win against ten thousand, how can the Qin army be an enemy?"
War is such a weird thing sometimes.
If all the soldiers believe that the battle can be won, they will all move towards this goal and fight the enemy bravely, then the battle will really be won.
On the other hand, if all the soldiers have doubts about themselves and are worried about losing the war before they even start fighting, then everyone will think about protecting themselves wisely, and then they will really lose.
At this time, King Youxian's 80,000-strong army was the latter.
In fact, King Youxian's army at this time was more than 80,000. After returning to the grassland, he urgently recruited 10,000 and expanded it to 90,000...
The Xiongnu recruitment speed will be much faster than that of the Central Plains.
The reason is that the Central Plains is a farming nation, and most of the people only know how to farm. After being recruited as soldiers, they need to be trained before they can be useful.
Although this is not entirely the case, because the people of the Qin State also perform regular service, but the service period is only one month a year, and not all of this month is used for training, and is sometimes used as hard labor.
Therefore, to go into battle, especially to become an elite, you have to practice for several years.
However, the Xiongnu nomads have been riding, shooting and hunting since childhood, and they are almost qualified soldiers as soon as they are recruited into the army.
This is the case when King Youxian urgently recruits 10,000 troops.
However, with morale so low that the entire army thought they could not fight against the Qin army, all the veterans talked about was how powerful the Qin army was and how terrifying it was to fight against it... It would be nice if the new recruits were not frightened when they came in, so what?
Able to fight!
How could Xun Hao not know this?
So Xunxu has been training his troops during this period, hoping to improve their morale in preparation for a battle with the Qin army.
However, even Xun Yu himself had no confidence.
How should the Qin army respond if it invades?
It is said that the Qin army gathered a hundred thousand troops on this trip... If the Qin army of ten thousand could not defeat it, how could it defeat a hundred thousand troops?
If we lose again, how will we explain it to Shan Yu?
These are the questions that Xunxu thinks about most.
However, Xun Hao still comforted himself:
"The Qin army is not good at riding and fighting."
"The cobbled-together Western Region cavalry is nothing to worry about."
"This is a grassland. The Xiongnu cavalry has never been defeated on the grassland. How can they be afraid of the Qin army?"
Xun Hao thought, at worst, when the Qin army comes to invade, he will just wander around by familiarity with the terrain. When the time comes, the Qin army will be unable to catch up and fight, so why should he be afraid?
Thinking of this, Xun Yu felt at ease.
Then a few days later, someone suddenly came to report:
"King Youxian, something bad has happened!"
"I can only wait a few days before the Qin army invades..."
King Youxian sat up with a "Teng" sound, and then became furious:
"The Qin army is only a few days away? Why are you reporting now? Are you just wandering around on the road?"
In fact, it was King Youxian who mistakenly blamed the spies.
If the spies traveled day and night with minimal equipment and were replaced along the way, then it would not be a big problem for the news to travel eight hundred miles a day.
And the cavalry army mobilizes troops and mobilizes supplies and cattle and sheep, so it is enough to travel a hundred miles a day.
However, Shen Bing went out uncharacteristically and did not choose to travel during the day but at night. At first, the spies only thought that the Qin army was just having daily training and paid no attention to it.
It wasn't until the next day that the Qin army was nowhere to be seen that I felt something was wrong. When I caught up with them, I realized that the Qin army was heading straight towards the grassland.
This relieved me for half a day.
After that, the Qin cavalry army was generally equipped with saddles, stirrups and horseshoes, and their marching speed increased from hundreds of miles a day to a hundred and fifty miles a day.
In particular, they sent out rangers to conduct reconnaissance along the way. When they encountered herdsmen along the way, they would not indiscriminately take them all into custody and march with the troops.
So the Huns spies disguised as herdsmen were accidentally detained and unable to escape.
On the road, one after another Hun spies were taken into custody by the rangers without any preparation.
It was not until a few days later that a few spies hiding in the dark were missed and they hurriedly came to report the news.
But at this time, the Qin army was only five days away from King Youxian's station.
King Youxian was shocked and quickly ordered the entire army to pack up and move to the camp.
King Youxian took it for granted that the Qin army was here to find its main force and fight decisively with it.
But King Youxian soon discovered that this idea was wrong.
In fact, Shen Bing didn't know where King Youxian was at all, and he didn't need to know and it was useless to know.
In the grassland, for the Huns cavalry, they could pack up their tents and move at any time. So what would they do if they knew where their station was?
But Shen Bing knew that there was a place where the Huns could not escape.